


Together

by Mimozka



Series: Arrow Season 4 Stories [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Angst, Arrow 4x08, Emotional Support, F/M, Family, Parenthood, Paternity, Secrets
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-26
Updated: 2015-11-26
Packaged: 2018-05-03 12:00:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5289863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mimozka/pseuds/Mimozka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver and Felicity deal with the news that Oliver has a son</p>
            </blockquote>





	Together

**Author's Note:**

> This fic contains heavy spoilers for Arrow 4x08 from the NZ trailer so read no further if you don't want to be spoiled.

* * *

 

“I’m pretty sure you’re someone’s dad.” 

The comm line in Barry’s suit is open when he confesses to Oliver what he and his team had only come across recently. 

Back at S.T.A.R. Labs, Felicity freezes in her chair - a reaction she’s pretty sure Oliver mimicks. She doesn’t look at the screen to confirm that, she doesn’t feel all the people in the room zeroing on her. Her gaze is blank as her brain tries to process the bomb Barry had just - figuratively - dropped on them. 

_you’re someone’s **dad.**_

Oliver was being truthful when he’d told the Hoffmans that they hadn’t talked about children yet. They weren’t even engaged or anything - not that they had to be married to have kids, though. She knew that her and Oliver were fully committed to each other. 

Still… Oliver had mentioned nothing about being a dad. Ever. Not even once in the four years that they’ve known each other… Which led Felicity to believe that he must have not known about it himself. Given his past before the Island, that was definitely a possibility. 

But then other images started trickling into her mind. 

_Oliver as someone’s dad._

Oliver with a child, whose height barely reached Oliver’s hips, the gender changed depending on the image in Felicity’s head - one time she saw them playing catch in the yard (in a house that looked remarkably like the one they have in Ivy Town) and in another he’s sitting at the dining room table and having his nails painted and hair styled.

Oliver loves fiercely and with his entire heart. Being loved by him is like wrapping yourself in a big fuzzy blanket and sitting in front of a fire - it gives you warmth and security. 

It also gives you strength. 

Whoever Oliver’s son is, whatever the circumstances are that led to him not knowing, she was sure about one thing - this kid was going to get one hell of a father and she was going to be there beside him, every step of the way.

After all, she loves Oliver. Every single bit of him - the good, the generous, the funny, the dangerous, the broody and the damaged. Loving the piece of him that lives in his child would be no effort at all.

She wants forever with him. Until they’re both old and wrinkly, cuddling on the sofa and wondering how fast time flew because their vigilante-ing days seem so far away now. She wants a home with him. She wants a family, She wants everything. 

A kid was not a part of their plan right now, but they will adapt. They will rethink the plan and it will include his son or daughter, because he’s family now. 

Malcolm being Thea’s father had no bearing on Robert’s love for his daughter. Felicity wouldn’t let the child’s DNA to affect her either.

“Felicity?” 

She’d apparently been out of it long enough for Oliver and Barry to be back in the lab. She takes in their surroundings and the fact that they are in a room full of people. Her eyes fixate on the vulnerable and fearful expression on Oliver’s face - not unlike the one he had during their fight when her mother visited.

Silly man, what would it take for him to realize that the grip he has on her is unyielding and permanent? - maybe this will do the trick.

She gets up and takes his hand in hers. “We’re going back to the hotel, guys. See you tomorrow.” 

Everyone offers nods and their quiet consent as they leave. 

It’s only once they are in their pajamas, cuddled on their bed, back in their hotel that Felicity asks him if he’s okay. 

“No. No. I’m not.” he says honestly. His shoulders slump as he sags into her embrace.

“Talk to me.” she asks him, her arms tightening around her.

“There was this girl back before the Island…” he tells her. 

He tells her everything about Sandra. How they met at a party while he and Laurel were “on a break” he tells her they were both drunk and that, at the time, Sandra was a sophomore Sorority Girl at his last college. How he was always using protection back in the day but that the condom must have broken. He told her it was only that one night, because several nights later he’d gotten together with Laurel again. He tells her about the phone call he’d received two months later with the news of the pregnancy. How selfish he had been thinking only about himself, his life, and how a child meant the end of his life. He tells her about his conversation with his mother.

“She called me to let me know that she’d lost the baby several days later, over the phone. I asked her if she needed anything, but she told me she was moving and that she’d rather not hear from me again. I never saw her again before last year in Jitters.” He says. 

That triggers a memory in Felicity. They’d bumped into a gorgeous woman on their way out. Her and Oliver seemed to know each other if the sad expression on his face and the alarm on hers were any indication. When Felicity had asked who that was, the wistful expression on his face and the sadness in his voice betrayed the presence of an unpleasant memory. 

“I didn’t know.” he whispers into her shoulder. “I didn’t know… I didn’t know… I didn’t know… I didn’t know… ” he keeps repeating it as the shaking in his body increases. Her shoulder is wet. He’s crying. Felicity holds him tighter, presses him closer, and settles for rubbing circles on his back in the hope that she can comfort him.

He falls asleep at some point in the wee hours of the night, exhaustion having taken over. She doesn’t let him go, but she reaches for her night stand and grabs her tablet. 

There’s not much she can do to help him, but finding Sandra and her son is something she can do. She starts with their location and moves on to school and job records, health records, bank statements .. What she finds in the latter shocks her… but also explains everything.

Oliver wakes with the sunrise, no more than four hours since he fell asleep. 

“Did you sleep?” he asks, as he stretches in bed. 

“No, I was busy.” Felicity yawns in response. 

She hands him the tablet and watches him carefully as he reads through the information she’s gathered.

“Thank you.” he says, pressing a kiss to her temple.

“Are you going to meet him?” Felicity asks.

“I don’t know if I should?” ah, there it is. She’s been waiting for that statement.

“Of course you should! You’re his father. You have a right to know your son and he has a right to know you!” Felicity objects. 

“With the life that we lead - “

“No.” Felicity cuts him off sharply. She knows where he’s going with this because she’s heard that speech before. She’s been on the receiving end of it more than once. 

“Oliver,” she grabs his face in her hands and looks him in the eye “as someone who grew up without a father I can tell you that it sucks. You’re always wondering why you’re different. Why you weren’t enough for your dad to stay. William is different though. You weren’t there because you didn’t know, not because you didn’t want him.”  she tells him, her voice brimming with emotion. 

“But you - “ 

“I am going to love this boy.” Felicity cuts him off again. “I am going to love him. I already do. I love every part of you, Oliver. He is a part of you - so I love him. It’s that simple. And if there’s anything of you in him, then I will only love him more.” the raw emotion turns into soft gentleness as she speaks. 

Oliver’s eyes are tearing up. He tries to speak but he can’t. Instead he swallows one lump of emotion after another.

“I don’t know if I can be a good father.” he whispers so quietly that she almost doesn’t hear him.

“You’ll be a great father, Oliver. You’ll mess up and you’ll learn at first, you both will. But you have the heart for being a father. Just look how much you loved your mother, your sister, Thea, Roy, John and myself. You love so deeply, Oliver… This child is going to be the luckiest little boy out there.” with that she hugs him again, her nose nuzzling into his shoulder as her lips press feather-light kisses against it.

His arms wrap tightly around her and she’s never felt more at home.

“I want to meet him” he whispers into her hair. 

“Good.”

“Come with me?” he asks.

“I think you need to do this on your own, You and Sandra have a lot of air to clear. But I would love to meet him afterwards.” she tells him. 

When he offers no response she pulls back from their embrace and nudges his nose with hers. 

“We’ll get through this, I promise.” she tells him with conviction. “Together."


End file.
